The Pierced Ear
“And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:”
Exodus 21:5 · KJV
“Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.”
Exodus 21:6 · KJV
“Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.”
Psalms 40:6 · KJV
A Hebrew servant went free in the seventh year. But if he loved his master and would not leave, the master brought him to the door, “and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever” (Exod 21:6). A free man choosing to stay a servant, marked at the door for life.
Psalm 40 puts those words in the mouth of the Messiah: “mine ears hast thou opened” (40:6), literally “digged,” the language of the bored ear. And Hebrews quotes it of Christ, but the Greek reads “a body hast thou prepared me” (Heb 10:5), the willing servant who took a body to stay at the door forever. The mark of love was made where the servant chose to remain: at the door, the same place the Passover blood went.